| April 2010 | Issue 8 |
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WHAT'S CURRENT
A couple items in the news recently highlight the issues and challenges the industry will face in adding a communications layer to the electric power grid. These items deal with the physical infrastructure utilities must add to create the next-generation grid, but they hint at other challenges the utilities will encounter as the communications layer becomes operational. read more TOP STORIES The Third Form of Ocean Power It's a form of energy that's been around for a century, doesn't emit carbon dioxide and won't run out. But will Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion OTEC really work? The U.S. Department of Energy DOE has given Lockheed Martin two grants totaling $1 million to begin to look at ways to generate electricity from the clash that occurs when chilly water from 2,000 feet below the ocean surface comes in contact with surface water. read more Xcel Energy: Crunching Data from SmartGridCity Two things stood out from my visit yesterday to "Current House" in Boulder, Colo. First, Xcel Energy is playing catch-up with the reams of data streaming from its city-wide smart grid technology pilot, dubbed SmartGridCity. "We are up to our eyeballs in data analysis," is how Kathleen Hoxworth, Xcel's senior project manager for strategic technology and lead presenter, put it. read more SmartGridCity: Drivers and Business Cases My attendance at an Xcel Energy briefing on its SmartGridCity project was a window onto the global importance of such efforts. Fully three-quarters of the audience was composed of businessmen from a Japanese utility (Kyushu Electric Power Company) and from a Chinese subsidiary of a Japanese industrial conglomerate (Hitachi Ltd.). read more GE: Waiting for WiMax Utilities were excited at first by the high-bandwidth, long-haul capabilities of the wireless communications technology WiMax in the smart grid. That excitement has waned. High costs and coverage gaps led many to favor alternatives for tasks other than simple "backhaul" data transmission to and from local collection points. read more Midwest ISO Launches Smart Grid Project The Midwest ISO has launched a three-year program to install more than 150 high-tech monitoring devices that will monitor the state of the electrical grid 30 times each second, increasing the efficiency and reliability of power delivery. Midwest ISO is the first regional transmission organization (RTO) to move forward and execute an agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy to implement synchrophasors, also known as phasor measurement units (PMUs), to more accurately measure voltage and current within the Eastern Interconnection. read more PLENARY PANEL
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
WHITE PAPER The Smart Grid and the Evolution of the Independent System Operator  The electricity system of the future has to produce and deliver electricity that is reliable, affordable and clean. To accomplish these goals, both the electric grid and the existing regulatory system need to get smarter. This paper explores the smarter grid, the broader vision of a smart grid in the United States, and the role that the standards making process has in helping Independent System Operators (ISOs) evolve to meet the challenges facing the grid. Read full paper ANALYST CORNER The Smart Alternative: Securing and Strengthening Our Nation's Vulnerable Electric Grid With an increasing focus on developing and utilizing alternative energy sources to ensure a secure and reliable energy supply, the need is becoming abundantly clear for a modernized energy infrastructure capable of facilitating such innovation and enhancing America's resilience. The essence of resilience is the ability of our Nation to identify, prepare for, respond rapidly to, and recover from any possible catastrophic event. The practical adoption and implementation of a next-generation electrical- power grid - Smart Grid - will reduce the consequences of the electrical grid being targeted by terrorists or adversely affected by a natural disaster while improving energy efficiency and reliability. Read more GRIDVISION AWARD WINNER SPOTLIGHT GridVision Award winners are recognized for their outstanding contributions with the electric power industry. Featured winner:  The GridVision Award recognizes PECO's significant advances toward a smarter, more efficient and more reliable power grid. One of only six utilities in the country to receive major stimulus funding, PECO has pioneered new uses of its AMI data stream, creating significant impacts on operations and customer value of the AMI investment. SMART TIP Supplied by California Energy Commission/ Consumer Energy Center
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